Terrence McNally

This article is about the playwright. For the actor, see Terrence E. McNally.

Terrence McNally
Born	November 3, 1939 (1939-11-03) St. Petersburg, Florida, U.S.
Occupation	Playwright
Period	1964–present

Terrence McNally (born November 3, 1939) is an American playwright who has received four Tony Awards, an Emmy, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He has been a member of the Council of the Dramatists Guild since 1970 and has served as vice-president since 1981. McNally was partnered to Thomas Kirdahy following a civil union ceremony in Vermont in 2003, and they subsequently married in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 2010.

Early life

Born in St. Petersburg, Florida and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, McNally moved to New York City in 1956 to attend Columbia University, where he majored in English and wrote Columbia's annual Varsity Show, graduating in 1960, the same year in which he gained membership into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He worked briefly for the alumni magazine Columbia College Today.

Career

Early career

After graduation, McNally moved to Mexico to focus on his writing, completing a one-act play which he submitted to the Actors Studio in New York for production. While the play was turned down by the acting school, the Studio was impressed with the script, and McNally was invited to serve as the Studio's stage manager so that he could gain practical knowledge of theater. In his early years in New York, he was a protégé and lover of the noted playwright Edward Albee.

In 1968, McNally asked that his name be removed from the credits for what would have been his first major project, the musical Here's Where I Belong. His decision proved to be a wise one, as the show closed after one performance. Although several early comedies such as Next in 1969 and The Ritz in 1975 won McNally critical praise, it was not until later in his career that he would become truly successful with works such as his Off-Broadway play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and its screen adaptation with stars Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

Later career

His first credited Broadway musical was The Rink in 1984, a project he entered after the score by composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb had been written. In 1990, McNally won an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Miniseries or Special for Andre's Mother, a drama about a woman trying to cope with her son's death from AIDS. A year later, he returned to the stage with another AIDS-related play, Lips Together, Teeth Apart. In the play, two married couples spend the Fourth of July weekend at a summer house on Fire Island. The house has been willed to Sally Truman by her brother who has just died of AIDS, and it soon becomes evident that both couples are afraid to get in the swimming pool once used by Sally's brother. It was written specifically for Christine Baranski, Anthony Heald, Swoosie Kurtz, and oft-collaborator, Nathan Lane, who had also starred in "The Lisbon Traviata".^{[citation needed]}

With Kiss of the Spider Woman (based on the novel by Manuel Puig) in 1992, McNally returned to the musical stage, collaborating with Kander and Ebb on a script which explores the complex relationship between two men caged together in a Latin American prison. Kiss of the Spider Woman won the 1993 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. He collaborated with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens on Ragtime in 1997, a musical adaptation of the E.L. Doctorow novel, which tells the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a fiery black piano man who demands retribution when his Model T is destroyed by a mob of white troublemakers. The play also features such historical figures as Harry Houdini, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan, and Henry Ford. Ragtime finished its Broadway run on January 3, 2010.^{[citation needed]}

McNally's other plays include 1994's Love! Valour! Compassion!, with Lane and John Glover, which examines the relationships of eight gay men; Master Class (1995); a character study of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas, which starred Zoe Caldwell and won the Tony for Best Play; and the least-known of the group, Dedication, or The Stuff of Dreams, with Lane and Marian Seldes.

In 1997, McNally stirred up a storm of controversy with Corpus Christi, a modern day retelling of the story of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death in which both he and his disciples are portrayed as homosexual. In fact, the play was initially canceled because of death threats against the board members of the Manhattan Theatre Club which was to produce the play. However, several other playwrights such as Tony Kushner threatened to withdraw their plays if Corpus Christi was not produced, and the board finally relented. When the play opened, the theatre was besieged by almost 2,000 protesters, furious at what they considered blasphemy. When Corpus Christi opened in London, a group called the Defenders of the Messenger Jesus issued a fatwa sentencing McNally to death.

On January 19, 2008, Robert Forsyth, Anglican bishop of South Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, condemned Corpus Christi (which opened for February's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, a play depicting Judas seducing Jesus): "It is deliberately, not innocently, offensive and they're obviously having a laugh about it." The play showed Jesus administrating a marriage between two male apostles. Director Leigh Rowney accepted that it would offend some Christians and said: "I wanted this play in the hands of a Christian person like myself to give it dignity but still open it up to answering questions about Christianity as a faith system."

McNally's drama Deuce ran on Broadway in a limited engagement in 2007 for 121 performances. Directed by Michael Blakemore, the show starred Angela Lansbury and Marian Seldes.

The Kennedy Center presented three of McNally's plays that focus on his works involving opera, titled Nights at the Opera in March 2010. The pieces included a new play, Golden Age; Master Class, starring Tyne Daly; and The Lisbon Traviata, starring John Glover and Malcolm Gets.

McNally has collaborated on several operas, including composer Jake Heggie's adaptation of Sister Helen Prejean's book, Dead Man Walking, for which McNally wrote the libretto. In 2007, Heggie composed a chamber opera, Three Decembers, based on original text by McNally titled Some Christmas Letters (and a Couple of Phone Calls, Too), with libretto by Gene Scheer.

Writing credits

Plays: And Things That Go Bump in the Night (1964) Botticelli (1968) Sweet Eros (1968) Witness (1968) ¡Cuba Si! (1968) Bringing It All Back Home (1969) Noon (1968), second segment of Morning, Noon and Night Next (1969) Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone? (1971) Bad Habits (1974) The Ritz (1975) Whiskey (1973) The Tubs (1974) Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (1982) It's Only a Play (1986) Andre's Mother (1988) Hope (1988), second segment of Faith, Hope and Charity The Lisbon Traviata (1989) Prelude and Liebestod (1989) Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991) A Perfect Ganesh (1993) Hidden Agendas (1994) Love! Valour! Compassion! (1994) By The Sea, By The Sea, By The Beautiful Sea (1995) Master Class (1995) Corpus Christi (1998) The Stendhal Syndrome (2004) Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams (2005) Some Men (2006) Deuce (2007) Unusual Acts of Devotion (2008) Golden Age (2009)

Musical Theatre: Here's Where I Belong (1968) The Rink (1984) Urban Blight (1988), co-writer Kiss of the Spider Woman (1992) Ragtime (1996) The Full Monty (2000) The Visit (2001) A Man of No Importance (2002) Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life (2005) Ganesha, A Perfect God (2010)[citation needed] Catch Me If You Can (2011) Opera: The Food of Love (1999), music by Robert Beaser Dead Man Walking (2000), music by Jake Heggie Three Decembers (Last Acts) (2008), music by Jake Heggie. Film: The Ritz (1976) Frankie and Johnny (1991) Love! Valour! Compassion! (1997) TV: Andre's Mother (1990) The Last Mile (1992) Common Ground (2000)

Awards

• 1975 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding New American Play (The Ritz)
• 1992 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding New Play (The Lisbon Traviata)
• 1992 Drama Desk Award Winner, Outstanding New Play (Lips Together, Teeth Apart)
• 1995 Drama Desk Award Winner, Outstanding Play (Love! Valour! Compassion!)
• 1996 Drama Desk Award Winner, Outstanding Play (Master Class)
• 1998 Drama Desk Award Winner, Outstanding Book of a Musical (Ragtime)
• 2001 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Book of a Musical (The Full Monty)
• 2003 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Book of a Musical (A Man of No Importance)
• 2006 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Play (Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams)
• 2007 Drama Desk Award Nomination, Outstanding Play (Some Men)
• 1990 Emmy Award Winner, Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries or a Special (Andre's Mother)
• 1992 Lucille Lortel Award Winner, Outstanding Body of Work (Terrence McNally)
• 1992 Lucille Lortel Award Winner, Outstanding Play (Lips Together, Teeth Apart)
• 1974 Obie Award Winner, Distinguished Play (Bad Habits)
• 1995 Obie Award Winner for Playwriting (Love! Valour! Compassion!)
• 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Drama Nomination (A Perfect Ganesh)
• 1993 Tony Award Winner, Best Book of a Musical (Kiss of the Spider Woman)
• 1995 Tony Award Winner, Best Play (Love! Valour! Compassion!)
• 1996 Tony Award Winner, Best Play (Master Class)
• 1998 Tony Award Winner, Best Book of a Musical (Ragtime)
• 2001 Tony Award Nomination, Best Book of a Musical (The Full Monty)

References

Footnotes

General citations

• Grode, Eric. Show Music: The Musical Theatre Magazine. Fall 2000. Volume Sixteen, Number Three.
• Terrence McNally at glbtq.com
• Perspectives in American Literature

External links

• Terrence McNally at the Playwrights Database
• Terrence McNally at the Internet Off Broadway Database
• Terrence McNally at the Internet Broadway Database
• Terrence McNally at the Internet Movie Database
• Guggenheim Fellowship listing
• Press Release about Corpus Christi
• New Plays And Playwrights - Working in the Theatre Seminar video at American Theatre Wing.org, January 2004